Monday, March 13, 2006

No Justice, No Peace!I haven't seen anything regarding a suspension for Nathan Horton after Friday night's game. On Tuesday of last week, Evgeny Artyukhin was awarded a two game suspension for doing an El Kabong on Antoine Vermette's mellon with the centerman's own helmet. Horton pulled the same trick on Friday night during a scrum with CAdams. Anybody heard anything about pending Colin Campbell justice in the matter?

You read a lot nowadays about how the old school code of conduct among players is vanishing. Players seem to be looking out solely for themselves on the ice and leaving it to the league office to administer justice-often well after the fact.

Two examples from the last few weeks-one old school and one new. In the last Canucks/Blues game, Todd Bertuzzi lays a clear and flagrant late game elbow to the head of Dallas Drake. Old school Keith Tkachuk immediately goes after Bert. Instant justice for a deserved offense. Chunk didn't hesitate to stand up for his pard.

In the aforementioned CAdams/Horton tilt, Horton got a game misconduct, so instant justice was not an option. He was however back on the ice the next night. Does anybody recall young Nathan being schooled for his misbehavior of the previous night? Now we're gonna wait for Colin Campbell to dispense some administrative justice?

What happened to players holding players responsible? It's not just a re-set rant on the Brooks Orpik affair. Clubhouse leaders need to come down on the Darius Kasparitis', Brendan Witts, and Scott Parkers in their midsts. Clubhouse leaders need to tell the Sean Avery's of the league to shut their yapper and just play. Scott Mellanby needs to take Ilya Kovalcheat behind the Zamboni and have a discussion about his grandstanding.

Behavior management shouldn't be in the hands of Colin Campbell and Donald Brashear. It ought to be in the hands of league veterans and the guys who wear the "C" and the "A."

yeah. I was really surprised that two games was all Parker got. He was already ejected from the game. I was also surprised that Brendan Witt got no fine or suspension in that affair.

In the Horton/CrAdams thing, as much as I hate to say this, the reason there was no suspension is that there was no blood. Clearly, the "intent to injure" was there, and that's the name for the two game suspension to Artyukhin, but it's almost like "no blood, no foul". I know it seems completely backwards to use that logic to determine disciplinary action, but it seems to be what they did in this particular case. There's definitely not a clearcut protocol for dealing with this exact act. We've seen it three times this season (at least), and seen three different disciplinary actions. Darcy Tucker did this in December. I don't remember the opposing player, but he did the "beat you with your own helmet" thing, opening deep cuts on the other guy's head. Fined, but not suspended.Artyukhin does it, cuts the guy and gets two games.Horton does it, but doesn't open cuts on CrAdams' head. No suspension, no fine. Only an ejection.

The league is clearly not doing a good job of letting the players know that certain things are simply unacceptable. When that's the case, it leaves the players no recourse but vigilante justice.

After this Parker/Witt thing, I wonder what's next. A player going into the stands, starting a fight with a fan and getting a two game suspension?

It might also be the case that Lavi didn't ask the league to review the Horton/CrAdams thing. Usually, that's how those things get started -- a coach requests a review. This has to be done no more than 24 hours after the offense. Since Craiggers wasn't hurt, and we had another game to focus on, maybe Lavi let it ride.